School of Communication and Media
Portfolio Guidance Notes
A portfolio is essentially made up of examples of recent work relevant to your choice of course. The College offers Portfolio Preparation Evening and Saturday Morning classes for those applicants wishing to prepare or improve their portfolio. In addition, the College has an extended one year full time foundation course in General Design which is ideal for anyone wishing to develop a portfolio. Successful completion can lead to a range of HNC/D level courses.
Photography NQ
No folio required
Photography HNC/D
A formal photographic portfolio is required for application to these courses. The following guidelines should be noted:
Maximum folio size A3. All contents to be secured to avoid loss. Please submit prints as this allows us to avoid difficulties encountered with digital presentations. (Larger folios will not be accepted due to storage and handling problems).
Neat and clean presentation is important, but do not attempt elaborate titling etc unless you consider it essential.
A variety of work is essential (a thematic approach within a specific subject area might be appropriate as part of your folio e.g. themes; (people, places & objects), but this should not preclude variety in the result. A maximum of 20 images is recommended. Please take the time to include a personal statement indicating your motivations and goals for studying photography at our College.
Artwork (drawings and paintings) should not be included.
Please be prepared to discuss why and how you produced the photographic work in your folio.
Where work has been produced as part of a photographic course this should be clearly indicated giving details of the College or School attended and the module or unit for which the exercise was undertaken.
Please indicate where photographs have been digitally manipulated and give reasons for this decision. You are encouraged to produce your own work but if you do not have access to facilities it is permissible to use laboratory services.
Portfolio Submission
HNC & HND Television courses Format
The showreel must be submitted on DVD. Alternative arrangements for Portfolio submissions can be made if necessary. If you do not have a showreel but would like to discuss your application, a member of staff will be able to meet with you at the Portfolio day.
Content
The showreel can consist of one or more productions with each production being individually identified. Please indicate if a production was part of a group activity and which role you performed in the production.
Paperwork
All associated production paperwork should be available.
Course Work
Where work has been produced as part of a course, this should be clearly indicated giving details of the college or school attended and the module or unit for which the exercise was undertaken.
DVD Identification
DVDs must be clearly labelled with name and address and ready to play at the start of the first production.
Portfolio Submission
For details of how and when to submit your portfolio, please contact: Student Services 0141 566 6224.
Course Materials
In most cases, course materials are provided. However, there are a number of courses where additional materials and/or equipment requires to be purchased. These are listed below. The College may be able to support some students through a bursary, the European Social Fund (ESF) Projects and/or the College Hardship Funds. For more information, please contact your course tutor.
NQ/HNC/D Photography and Professional Development Award in Professional Photography
Essential photographic equipment is provided. This includes: Canon Digital SLR cameras & Lenses, dark room equipment, studio lighting and ‘digital darkroom’ equipment such as scanners and iMac computers. Students are will be expected to pay for print output of digital files either from a professional photographic lab or from our in house Digital Printer. In addition, you will be expected to pay for a small amount of B&W Photographic paper and photographic film if required. We recommend that you arrive at College equipped with at least one, 1gb Memory Stick. HND & PDA students should consider having their own Digital SLR camera.
NQ Television Production and HNC/D Creative Industries: Television
Some course materials are provided. However, student are expected
to purchase professional standard video tapes (NC – approx £20, HNC/D £100 per year).
ICT Courses
Most course materials are provided. However, students are expected to purchase disks.
School of Design
Portfolio Guidance Notes
For HNC / HND Courses
The School offers a range of courses which require the submission of a portfolio as part of the entry requirements.
What is a portfolio?
A portfolio is a collection of examples of your art, design and/or craft work.
What is the purpose of a portfolio?
The portfolio will be reviewed by experienced teaching staff. It tells them a lot about you. It shows your creativity and practical skills in the field of art, design or craft. It demonstrates your enthusiasm, work rate and organisational skills, but most of all it shows your POTENTIAL. Reviewing your portfolio will help our specialist staff to give you the best advice on which level of study and course is right for you at this time.
What should I have in my Portfolio?
It should contain examples which show your drawing skills and your use of colour and different media. It is important to include work which shows your initial research, the development of ideas and completed artwork/designs. It’s important to include sketch books which show how you record images and ideas through drawing and how you collect and collate visual information. They should let us know about what interests you.
The following is a good guide for your portfolio:
1. Examples of work undertaken at school or as part of a programme of study and/or examples of personal work in Art and/or Design or Crafts.
2. Please present work in a logical way, grouping things in categories such as Drawings, Paintings, Design Projects, Prints, Textiles, Craft Projects, etc.
3. Preliminary studies presented with finished work in order to show development.
4. Sketchbooks.
5. Include copies of work sent to exam board.
6. Include photographs of 3 dimensional work.
7. Mount examples of work, if you can, with small pieces mounted in groups on larger sheets or in your sketchbook.
8. A single portfolio submitted in support of your application. It must open and close easily. Drawings must not be rolled up.
9. The portfolio must include your name and address with clear indication of the course applied for on the label that the College provides.
10. Avoid multiple colour variations of prints.
11. Remember it is quality not quantity.